I didn't dislike him personally, when he was on Parkinson or anything like that I thought he was fantastic, it was all that falling about, silly little man stuff.

I don't like 'unfair', 'Fawlty Towers' and 'Hancock' were two others I didn't like.

I like my comedy to be upbeat.

I met Norman Wisdom when I was a lad (pre CH days!) as we found ourselves renting the beach hut next to his on holiday in Bournemouth. He was a really nice bloke as I remember him playing beach cricket and the like with us and his own children.

His son, Nick, (if I remember his name correctly after all this time) was a very useful spin bowler, good enough to play 2nd X1 cricket for Sussex.

I have to say I loved (still do) Norman Wisdom's comedy also Hancock and Fawlty Towers!

I never quite knew how to deal with Grimshaw as he could be a bit unpredictable. If he got the hump with you, you always knew about it.

He used to run the RAF CCF and he came with our sorry little ragamuffin outfit to RAF Wittering in 1987 (I think) for the summer camp. Now as we all know, smoking wasn't permitted at CH but on the first day at the camp it was announced that anyone over 16 was allowed to smoke. Of course at this news we visibly rejoiced and Grimmit had a face like a smacked bum. That said, we knew it was more than our lives were worth than to rub his face in it by smoking where he could see us so we still used to sneak around behind the back of the houses having crafty cigs out of sight.

Sadly, such deference counted for nothing with the man and when he found an old fag butt under the gas fire in the living room during a house inspection (that obviously had been there for years), he still had us out on the parade ground burning shoe leather for an hour just to remind us he was still the daddy.

Overall, my recollections of the bloke were that he was 'a bit straight' but decent. In my senior years, I used to nip down to Maine B on my bike to get the key for the Manual School when I was working on the 'The Blue' layouts on an evening. I can still hear his voice now but I have trouble placing his accent. Was he from Lancashire?

DC wrote: I can still hear his voice now but I have trouble placing his accent. Was he from Lancashire?

DC

He was from Liverpool.

I wonder if the dog you are all talking about is the same Jack Russell pup that always tried to bite my ankles when I used to visit him and his wife in their flat, circa 1974. I think it had a bit of a fettish for yellow stockings (that's the dog not Ken) !!

No Rambo was kicking about during the 80's. From what I remember, he was a little black muscle on 4 short legs. Not the sort of dog you would go up to and pet, unlike say, Tigger ( a good-natured overweight mongrel owned by Peter 'Pinky' Wright), that didn't look as though he would hurt a fly.